their dream that america might be that garden in the wilderness, that america might be that for foretaste of hel these centuries later, that dream is still alive. that dream is now in our care, and whether it survives in four shows will depend on what we do in the days and years to come. and god help us, we will see that dream through. god bless you. thank you for having me. and god bless the united states of america. thank you so much. ♪ ♪ ♪ republican presidential candidate and fmer arkansas governor asa hutchinson also spoke at the western conservative summit in denver. during his remarks he touted his experience in federal government under the rgan and george w. bush administrations. his time as governor and his plans for the nation if elected.

♪ >> please welcome presidential candidate and former governor of arkansas governor asa hutchinson. >> listen, thank you, thank you. iton is great to be here today. it is great to be in the west and it is great to be with a conservativee audience. that's the combination here. when i began my political journey, ronald reagan was in the white house and bill clinton was governor of arkansas. arkansas was different then. it was a blue state. i was a red dot and i look at my options in the future and i chose to follow the conservative path of ronald reagan that he pays for our country. the path ofor limited governmen, of opportunity, of individual responsibility, and a strong america. that is the republican party. that is thepa conservative movement that i grew up with.

and it was an honor for me to be able to fight that battle in arkansas. my political journey started as a young united states attorney, the youngest in the nation at the age of 31. when i was appointed by president reagan. and that journey took me into aa terrorist camp in northern arkansas where the fbi gave me a bulletproof vest and said you might need this. and i was set out to help negotiate the surrender, or a standoff, with an armed terrorist group. i thought that battle. we put them in prison. i tried that case. as chairman of the republican party of arkansas when bill clinton was governor and then ran for president, i fought the battle for the conservative movement in our state trying to change it from a blue state to a

red state. i had the honor of being elected to the united states congress, and as a member of congress i fought battles there as well. i fought the battle of the judiciary committee for pro-life laws that would come out of congress. i lead the impeachment trial of president clinton over in the senate. we balanced the budget in this country when i was the united states congress and we are long overdue from balancing the budget again. [applause] at president bush asked me to lead to congress to join his administration as head of the dea. and they understood the challenge of that families faced with methamphetamine, with drug abuse in our cds, and i read that agency that i got there one month before the 9/11 attack occurred. and when that happened president bush asked me to go over and help set up the new department

of homeland security, the largest government reorganization since the pentagon was created. it was my responsibility to protect our border. i had responsibility for it, and i'll tell you we didn't get it perfect in the bush administration. but i will also tell you it looks perfect compared what we have today. i also had responsibility to protect oursp transportation systems from a terrorist attack here can people ask me, how can you sleep at night knowing that you could be held responsible for a terrorist incident on u.s. soil? my answer is simple, that i have faith in a providential god that looks over the affairs of man. and that faith carries me in public service. it carries me in my private life. i also knew that the men and women in the military were

overseas taking the fight to the enemy, and that keeps us safe as well. and so i have been in the hot seat. i have been in positions of authority during times of crisis in our country. i have seen the that the carteli brings. i actually went down, met with president fox, the president mexico at that time, develop cooperation where we could actually go after the cartels and dismantle the tijuana cartel at thate. time. and so i understand the threats of america. i understand the challenges that we faced. and then i had the opportunity to what i believed to take on the best job in america, which was to be governor of arkansas. and whenever i got elected governor of arkansas, it was the first time in the history of our state that we had a republican governor with a republican legislature, and we were able to

accomplish great things. during eight years as governor, and i was term limited, and i was able to turn the reins of state government over to sarah huckabee sanders, our new governor of arkansas. that is thn arkansas history that we went from a republican administration to another republican administration. it is because of the success that we had in cutting taxes, $700 million moving from the state coffers into private sector and families in arkansas. he balanced the budget eight times. we know how to do it. i left a $2 billion sir but -- surplus for my successor. we reduced the size of state government by 14% in terms of the number of state employees. protected women's sports.

i signed a law that prohibited biological males from contributing in women's sports. not complicated, common sense, right thing to do. i signed over 30 pro-life laws that came to my desk. now let's arkansas be considered the number one pro-life state in the nation. guess what, i had to manage through pandemic. there were two decisions i made during that pandemic that i believe support the cause of freedom and families and businesses. the first one was we had enormous pressure nationally to shelter-in-place. to declare this business essential business and this business non-essential. we went on national television

and said on not doing that. every business that provides a job for a family is an essential business. we are not closing them down. the second decision i made was to keep our schools open. i will confess that in march 2020, no parent wanted send their kids to school and everybody went virtual. when i saw the impact on our students and their progress in life, i said we've got to return for in classroom instruction. at that time, the cases nationally. i had protesters in coffins out in front of the governor's residence. i said we are going back to the classroom. because we did and i resisted the pressure, arkansas was ranked number two in the nation in terms of days of in classroom instruction during the pandemic.

[applause] yes, we beat florida. sort of proud of that fact and i will confess it was a western state that was number one, it was wyoming. hats off to wyoming for being number one. i chose to choose the path of freedom, a path of common sense, and understanding that government mandates can't solve every problem in life. we worked our way through that and through all of this, my faith has guided me and given me a better perspective about life and about our country and our future. now, i am a candidate for president of the united states and i believe we need course corrections for the biden administration. we need to have a progrowth energy policy that is not all green, it believes in producing energy, gives us the

independence we need as a country. [applause] we do not need the president of the united states going to saudi arabia saying can you produce more oil or venezuela and saying can you produce more oil. let's produce, let's make sure we get it from all of our sources so we can be independent and support our allies as well. we need to have a course correction when it comes to border security. i understand what needs to be done because i had that responsibility. way to make sure the border patrol has the support they need. need to build the infrastructure to protect that border in a physical way as well as a technology way. we need to make sure we reform our asylum processing so somebody doesn't come in, make their case to come in the united states of america and we deferred them for court proceeding down the road for a year or two then they are

released into our country. you have to process these decisions more quickly, more fairly, more honestly to protect the sovereignty of the united states of america. yes, we have to go after the cartels. the cartel which we took on when i was head of the dea has resurrected itself, expanded it self, and the current president of mexico has given them a green light. we have to pressure mexico to say we're going to respect the rule of law and we are going to go after the cartel in partnership with the united states. we have to control our borders and have a legal flow of immigration into our country. we have to stop the out-of-control spending coming out of washington, d.c.. that is the root cause of inflation.

it is the root cause of higher interest rates that the fed is imposing and we have to get our economy back on track. it is the number one issue in the 2024 campaign. how we are going to restore our economy, control spending, inflation, and make sure our interest rates are not hurting american families. yes, i also believe that we have to support our allies and be loyal partners with them. whenever you look at our disastrous withdrawal from afghanistan, we show weakness as a country. we were not loyal to our allies, we did not create a trust relationship with them as the united states of america always should have. the result of that is that russia goes into ukraine, china gets aggressive toward taiwan, america needs to be strong. we need to lead, we cannot let china assume a leadership world

as a position as a superpower. we have got to cut our ties from the supply chain of china when it comes to our medical supplies, military parts, and sensitive industries. we have got to make sure we are prepared to support taiwan and continue our support of ukraine. yes, i think also we need to keep the government out of our business and our schools. [applause] i say that because you have the department of labor that is presenting policies for business that they have to make sure they consider esg policies as a means of their investment in doing business. i don't think the government needs to tell business how to do and make a profit. if we disagree with them, let's

don't punish them either. it's business, its freedom, it is their right to run their business without the government telling them how to do it. i don't believe we should yield to the administrator of state in washington, d.c.. when i say that, i am talking about the waters of the united states of america. waters of the u.s. in which the epa defined in such roadway to the regulatory power, it took the u.s. supreme court to say you went too far, congress didn't give you that authority, and we are striking it down. as president, i will make sure i use executive authority to control the administrative state that doesn't burden our businesses, farmers, ranchers, and our way of life. whenever you look at what's coming out of washington, we need parents running our schools. we need parents engaged, making

decisions. we need to make sure we empower our local governments to make decisions so they don't all come out of washington, d.c.. these are unprecedented and unpredictable times we live in today. i look to the future and we have to play smart, to win, to turn back the tide. is a critical time in our country and we have to make sure we stand firm, we can win in 2024. ronald reagan was a mentor. i have already mentioned him. i watched him closely. yes, i am a ronald reagan conservative and there are three characteristics of ronald reagan i believe with you. first of all, he was a consistent conservative, win or lose. in 1976, he lost the election. he was the same man when the nation turned to him in 1980. he was a consistent

conservative. i hope that my work as governor, as a member of congress and the administration demonstrates that same consistent conservatism. secondly, when he got elected, he had a democrat congress. tip o'neill was the speaker of the house and he said i got to get my economic package through and he became pragmatic to work across the aisle to get things done for our country. the final characteristic of ronald reagan is that he was an optimist about america's future. you couldn't get him down, he believed in the american spirit, our national character, our freedoms, and we are truly the white house of freedom for the world. we need to have that optimism today for we need to have that optimism today for america. our future is bright. the conservative philosophy is right for our country. let's get out there and work for the principles of freedom that

we believe in and our forefathers have fought for. thank you, and godod bless you. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ >> c-span's campaign 2024 2024 coverage is your front row seat to the presidential election. watch our coverage of the candidates on the campaign trail with announcements, meet and greet, speeches and events to make up your own mind. campaign 2024 on the c-span network. c-span now, our free mobile video app or any time online at c-span.org. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. >> here's a look at what's coming up today on the c-span

networks. on c-span the house meets for a morning our canadian eaer at noon members will finish work on two pieces of legislation including a measure that would halt the application of new energy department efficiency standards for gas stoves and a bill that seeks to amend the congressional revi a. on c-span2 the sin is back at ten again and will vote at 11:3e for nominations in california and new york. on c-span3 at 10 a.m. ahead of the federighway administration testifies on implementation of infrastruure law recently passed by cgress. that's followed by senate judiciary subcommittee hearing at 2 p.m. o sreme court ethics. all of these programs are available o the c-span now that you out and online at c-span.org >> her this eve congressional republicans and crat face off in annual baseball game for charity. live coverage from washington nationals park begin at 7 p.m. eastern on cpa